I am finding it harder and harder to be critical of films. 

Because I am a filmmaker who understood distribution I decided in 1998 to help other British & Irish filmmakers, who were unable to secure distribution for their films. Apart from Alex Gibney's ZERO DAYS, all I released were British & Irish films. 

This week someone discussing the films I have distributed, asked me why I had distributed xxxxx (it would be unfair to name the film). Admittedly it was not a great film, but I managed to place it in the cinema, on DVD and even sold it to TV. This person just tore it apart and was very cruel about the filmmakers who have never made another movie. The “critic” has never made a film nor attempted to make one, but they are very well paid within the film industry. 

No one sets out to make a film that is not as good as it should be. I have now released over 120 films in the UK & Ireland and only one, SANCTUARY has had 100% great reviews. That said I have never had a film that had all bad reviews. Most films tend to get mixed reviews. 

What one person thinks is a not very good film another sees merit in it. 

There are an awful lot of people in the film industry who are so censorious about other people’s films, and I do not mean film critics, but so many of these people have never even tried to make a film. They make a living within the film industry in some kind of supply or facilitation function that relies on others making films. They have never nor will ever produce, direct or write a film. 

Sometimes some of those films they watch may not be as good as they should be. 

However, if you are one of those people who make a very good living from films, but you do actually make films yourself, the next time you see ones of these not as good as they should be films please do not rubbish it behind that persons back. Think of the years of hard work that have gone into making that film, often working for very little or nothing at all, and please just give the makers the respect they deserve. 

People laugh at Ed Wood’s films. They laugh as if he was an idiot, in a way they once laughed at people in lunatic asylums. He had such enthusiasm and love for the films that he made and the people he worked with, and although the result was not what many would think great films he tried his best. For that reason, he deserves respect and admiration. He was a dreamer and what the world always needs are more dreamers. 

For many reasons, Ed Wood would get my vote for Patron Saint of filmmakers, for every filmmaker I ever met is Ed Wood but some of them got very lucky along the way. 

What is the difference between a star and a jobbing actor?

Luck.

Somewhere on the road to where they are they got that lucky break.

I know an actor who was cast in a TV series that made them into a star. 

That actor was cast in the TV series because they were seen in something else, a very obscure BBC production hidden in the schedules and only shown once. 

The writer of that something else told me that when casting that role it was down to two actors. He and the director just could not make up their minds and in the end, cast the actor who would become a star because they thought the character he would be playing would have the same hair colouring. 

Now if that is not luck I don't know what is. 

Few stars I have worked with ever admit this. Derek Jacobi did. He was well down the list for I CLAUDIUS, lots of other actors having turned it down and told me that if he had not been cast in that role he would today be just a jobbing actor. He said that was his lucky break. 

Derek is in my view one of the greatest stage actors I have ever seen but over the last 48 years, I have been in the industry some of the best stage actors I have seen or worked with really struggle to make a living because they never had that lucky break. Most theatre as those who perform in it know full well does not pay a decent wage, unless you are doing it 52 weeks of the year. 

Therefore please try to treat that actor who has just sent you their CV or comes up to at a networking event well and with respect, because they are a star, a very big star, waiting for that lucky break.

This is why my regular London networking events have more actors than directors, producers, writers, sales agents, film financiers, etc. They are all stars in the waiting. 

(Also I co-host them with the actor Toby Osmond).